Reasoning with the bin collector trogs

Where do I sign? I live in the borough of Ealing and the first people I would target are the troglodytes who the council employs to collect the rubbish.

When I first moved into the borough last year, I was impressed by the area's recycling policy. Complying with the council's guidelines clearly involved a lot of time and effort, but I was happy to do it.

I also thought it would be a great way to instil a sense of civic responsibility in my young children.

On the day of the first collection, I spotted a recycling lorry at the bottom of the street and summoned my children to come and watch the bin men in action.

This particular lot were responsible for collecting the contents of the "green boxes", one of half a dozen different containers we have to divide our rubbish into.

We stood in our doorway, waiting to see them dispose of our waste in an environmentally friendly manner.

To my astonishment, a man in overalls picked up my box and started tossing out any rubbish he deemed unsuitable before taking it over to the lorry.

When he had finished, he hurled the green box in the general direction of my doorway, sending it bouncing towards the head of my three-year-old son.

What had I done wrong? Even after an examination of the items he'd thrown into the road, I was left none the wiser.

I glanced back in the direction that the recycling lorry had come from and saw litter strewn everywhere, with most of the green boxes lying in the gutter. It looked as if the street had been hit by a small tornado.

Needless to say, this same routine is repeated every week. I have tried reasoning with the rubbish collectors, pointing out that littering is an offence under section 87 of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act, but to no avail.

The standard response is to hand me a leaflet that describes what you can and what you can't put in your green box and then tell me to get lost.

Last Wednesday, when one of the bin men tossed a broken china plate out of my green box, causing it to smash into a dozen pieces on the pavement, I finally complained to Ealing council.

They've told me they'll look into it, but I suspect that empowering local citizens to issue on-the-spot fines to the council's employees is the only way forward.